Monthly Archives: November 2015

Last week is requirements week. From Marikina to Taytay to Rodriguez Rizal… Just thinking about it makes me very thankful and quite proud that we’re done. Just a month to go and we’ll be married!

Anyway, prior to attending these seminars I tried googling them in search of ideas of what happens and is very thankful that some thoughtful brides to be mentioned helpful details about it, and so as my way of helping too… Here’s a special blog post.

1. Canonical Interview

For the canonical interview, we are given a set of questionnaires to answer prior to giving our schedule. These are the questions that I can still remember:

Kung hindi magtagumpay ang inyong kasal, ano ang iyong gagawin?

Ano ang depinisyon mo ng kasal?

Saan kayo nagkakilala?

Kaninong desisyon at kailan ninyo nasimulang planuhin ang kasal?

Bakit ka magpapakasal?

The questions are personal and will somewhat give you a glimpse of how you and your partner stands on different issues and situations.

The canonical interview only took us 10 minutes, The priest simply asked questions about our relationship. How many children we’d like to have as he said that the main reason to marriage is to procreate. He also discussed the natural family planning method and stress that use of contraceptives and other artificial ways to delay or stop pregnancy is not in line with God’s plan for a husband and wife.

2. Catechetical Seminar

Imagine a half day of christian living lesson in a classroom. Talking about the 7 sacraments, 10 commandments and the likes. Simply put, A thorough review of the religion.

3. Pre-Cana Seminar

The term “pre-cana” is derived from the wedding of cana story itself. Where Jesus did his first miracle by turning water into wine during a wedding.

This is administered by couples who discusses their own family life and share their lessons learned and experiences as a married couple. The topics are quite interesting with day to day situations and how to handle them, how to communicate to your spouse, how to handle and educate your children, budget managament, knowing your priorities etc.

They also have an OB-GYNE speaker who discusses the natural family planning method such as temperature and calendar method. How to time the intercourse to produce a boy or a girl.

The seminars are enriching and is really a preparation of what is ahead of you after the wedding day. There’s one thing that everyone keeps on saying: Your wedding day is just day one.

This is a special post where I try to provide information for couples who are in the same page as us. LDR or OFW type. You’ll know what I mean when I say that completing such requirements needs great time management and well-thought plan.

Since my fiance and I is in a long distance realtionship. The major issue that we have during our wedding preps is attending all the seminars that are requirements both in applying for a marriage license and completing our Church requirements.

My fiance works in Davao City. Sure the ticket price is not that expensive thanks to promos. But still getting him to take a leave from work to come home to Manila is not that easy because they have a busy project in the works.

To give you a background: Our Church wedding is in Our Lady of the Abandoned in Marikina City and their requirements are the following:

NSO birth certificate

Baptismal and confirmation certificate with for marriage purposes label and within the 6 months validity

Certificafe of No Marriage with 6 months validity

Canonical interview (every wednesday and thursday). You need to fill up a form with questionnaires before you can get your schedule for the interview

Marriage banns and permission to marry which will be given to your parish church and will be posted for 3 consecutive sundays. This will be given to you only after the canonical interview. My parish Church is Christ the King in Taytay Rizal and My fiance’s is in Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Rodriguez Rizal, no need for pictures, we just submitted and paid 600 for each parish and they told us of the schedule where we can claim it after 3 weeks. Any representative upon claiming will do, no need for the couple to personally be there.

Catechetical seminar every 1st and 3rd saturday of the month. 8:30-12nn

Pre-cana seminar every 2nd and 4th saturday of the month. 8:30-5pm

Marriage license with 4 months validity

2 pcs 2×2 recent ID pictures

How to apply for a Marriage license in Taytay Rizal?

You need to attend the family planning seminar every tuesday 8:30-12nn. It consists of three parts provided by the DSWD, DA and DOH. But during our seminar, we only have one speaker who covers all three. After the seminar you’ll get the three certificates, fill it up and submit it to the office together with a xerox copy of your NSO birth certificate and CENOMAR then pay Php 450.00 and they’ll give you a date when you can claim your marriage license. No need for both the couple to be there, just either of them and be sure to present the receipt.

Please note that this process is for 25 years of age and above (we’re both 28) so no need for parents’s consent and advice.

We’ve attended all seminars and have applied for all the requirements in a span of one week. I asked my fiance to take a leave from work and fly to Manila and have arranged all this in a week. Talk about a tiring one!

All days in between are spent in invitation distribution and finding the groom’s outfit which can be very exhausting! (I never thought that finding a barong can be so confusing as they all look the same to me. Personally, finding my wedding gown is much easier because of I know what style I am aiming for. But for the barong, with the chinese collar, jusi, cocoon and any other things the sales person kept saying I’m just lost.)

I’ll be writing a separate post for the seminars to be more specific about the topics and questions discussed during the erm… Looong talks.

So there goes our week. We feel very accomplished after this. It can be done just make sure to coordinate with the parish office and tell them your situation. There are no shorcuts here, just pure dedication to make it work. Hope this helps in your preparation in a way or two 🙂